Petron power plant seen ready by Oct.

Petron Corp., the country’s biggest oil refiner and retailer, expects to complete in the fourth quarter the first phase of its planned 140-megawatt power plant within its refinery in Limay, Bataan.

Petron chair Ramon S. Ang confirmed that the oil company would be able to finish by October this year the construction of a 70-megawatt solid fuel-fired facility worth P10.84 billion. This was much earlier than the estimate given by Petron in a report, which stated that the first phase might be fully operational within the first quarter of 2013.

The power plant is expected to generate energy savings of as much as P1 billion a year for the oil company and is expected to help improve steam supply for the Bataan refinery.

“We invested in this power plant as we foresee a significant increase in operations at the Petron Bataan Refinery,” Petron explained.

“With the rapid expansion plans at our Bataan refinery, we began the construction of a 140-MW power plant in 2010, called the Refinery Solid Fuel-Fired Boiler (RSFFB) project. The first two trains were already 65-percent complete at the end of 2011.